Summer in the Desert
Imagining a Time Ahead
I have a habit of imagining myself in the future as a way of alleviating today’s stress. It started when I was a youngster. My countdown for summer vacation began in January. I recall watching the second hand going round on the schoolroom clock, anticipating the class’s end. Even today, I can still look ahead to a time when I may not experience the angst of the present.
Hope of Heaven
God gave us the gift of eternal life in heaven so that we can have hope while living in this sinful world. He knows how hard this life can be. Scripture gives glimpses of the sinless and sorrow-free future we will have with Him one day. But when I feel the weight of the burden of life, instead of thinking of the hope of heaven, I can look for an escape on my own terms. I turn to myself rather than to Jesus.
Desert Heat
This practice came to light for me after many years of living in the desert. When my young family moved to Phoenix in 1986, I couldn’t have imagined that I would spend the majority of my adult life in the Southwest. I didn’t like the desert. It was too brown and hot. Desert summers were not the lush green ones I knew as a child. Instead, it was and is oppressively hot for six full months, twenty-four hours a day. Fall and spring are cooler at night, but temperatures rise with the sun. We could live in shorts and sandals nine months of the year. Winter months are a blessed respite.
Desert dwellers have their own methods of physically dealing with the heat. Shaded parking, tinted car windows, ceiling fans, swimming pools, and air conditioning help get us through. But living in the intense heat also bothered me emotionally. It felt like a weight I didn’t want to carry.
I found that I spent the entire year counting down. In the summer I counted down the days until mid-September when temperatures cool down at night. In the winter, I counted down until mid-April when I knew I’d have to face the high temperatures again during the day. I dreaded the summer heat all year around. This practice didn’t alleviate anything. Instead, summer heat became my daily focus. I was ever in a state of dread. Dread of the heat of the day, or dread of the heat to come.
Inviting God into the Present
At some point it dawned on me that I lost my way. I was no longer living in the present. I wasn’t enjoying the gifts of the day. I wasn’t letting God minister to me in the challenges. I had developed a pattern of dealing with the heat by thinking of escaping it instead of learning to live through it with God’s help.
Living in the desert heat became a place where I could practice inviting Jesus to be present with me in the reality of my days. He delights to meet me in my struggles with His presence and peace, even when it is just about getting through July. As I practice inviting Him into my challenges and unpleasant emotions, I experience His ministry to me. I sense His nearness. I feel His comfort. I receive His strength and enablement to get me through. And I have peace.
Isaiah 63:9 (NIV84) “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
I Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Photo by Cody Doherty on Unsplash
___________________________________________________________________________________
Questions to ponder: When do you find it challenging to stay in the present? How has God ministered to you in hard times?
Want to Stay Connected? Join the Email List!